Day Four: More Misinformation

Today, waiting to check out a camera from Temple's equipment office, I heard some of the same lines I've been hearing over the last four days -- namely those about the greed of the Septa workers to be demanding more pay during this harsh economic climate. While I won't pass judgment on whether the union was right to call a strike together at this time and under these circumstances, I will say that this action is not endearing unions to a great many people in Philadelphia. Especially when viewed in conjunction with the anti-union sentiment that followed GM's collapse, the general rule of this recession seems to be anger at workers demanding more from their employers during a recession (and thus, demanding more from consumers, to whom the cost will be transferred).

Interestingly, a lot of misinformation has surrounded both the Septa strike and the GM collapse (and, too, the potential Acme lockout of this past summer). The main point of contention is not a direct raise in wages (though, that is on the table as well), but rather, the pension plan (the cost of health care and co-payments is also a rallying point, especially since medical inflation is rising at disturbing rates, which will inevitably lead to using a greater chunk of income to pay for it. Of course, it all comes down to the final contract. For comparison, the Acme/Local 1776 dispute over the summer came mainly from how drastically the union would yield, this Septa strike (from what I've seen) seems to be mainly focused upon how drastically Septa will yield -- two different positions.

Finally, an AP article seems to suggest Mayor Nutter might seek an injunction to halt the strike, using swine flu as his basis for doing so. Philadelphia has historically been a unionized town, if the Mayor ends up breaking the union or the strike in any way, prepare for some kind of backlash. One final historical precedent -- Reagan's destruction of Patco in 1981 paved the way for the current dire straits in which labor finds itself, increasingly marginalized and disemboweled while corporate power rises. What happens to TWU could, with that in mind, possibly be a foreshadowing of labor's role in Philadelphia in the coming decades. But then again, maybe not.

-Michael Gaudini